BLOGGERS WANT MPS TO BUCK UP

KUALA LUMPUR: While most Malaysians will have to wait and see if MPs will behave themselves during Monday's live telecast of question hour, the "blogosphere" is still echoing with individual post-mortems and thoughts of what went wrong.

Frustrated with what happened, DAP adviser and Ipoh Timur Member of Parliament Lim Kit Siang called last week's august House session "a bad start" and appealed to his blog readers to suggest ways to improve the situation.

First-time MP and Umno Youth secretary-general Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan of Kota Belud, also made similar appeals on his blog. He said he was shocked at the many "unparliamentary" words used by other MPs.

(Bukit Gelugor MP Karpal Singh and Kinabatangan MP Bung Mokhtar Radin traded barbs during question hour, calling each other "Big Foot" and "Big Monkey" respectively. This and other antics left many Malaysians fuming, with the government even mulling cancelling the live telecast.)

Abdul Rahman said he had high hopes for his first parliamentary session, but felt it was hampered by the many "point of orders" raised on technical matters. "But at least I still got to speak up twice that day," Abdul Rahman posted on his blog.

However, it was not just politicians who were not amused with Wednesday's Parliament session.

"Thus far, we've had MPs complaining about not getting invitation cards, not being able to park their cars in their proper places, others not swearing in properly and not getting enough questions.

"When are we going to get down to real business, folks?," posted Marina Mahathir on her blog. The daughter of former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad even cheekily suggested that an "MP Idol" competition should be introduced to ensure politicians be on their best behaviour.

Blogger and political analyst Khoo Kay Peng posted on his site that if the politicians continued to misbehave then they would only be welcoming their own doom.

"As they continue to bicker, many Malaysians are watching their childish antics and behaviour," Khoo wrote. - NST.